JPH09175602A - Automated storage and retrieval system for case - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automated storage and retrieval system for case in which the number of a storage shelf, a stacker crane and a conveyor can be reduced and at the same time the warehousing and the taking-out can be efficiently performed. SOLUTION: A multistage multistoried shelf 4 disposed in a plurality of rows of an automated storage and retrieval system for case has storage and conveyance shelves 11a to 11b which have a conveyor 10 in a plurality of stages of the lower story, and it has a multistage case storage shelf 12 in the upper part of the storage and conveyance shelves 11a to 11b. An article in large demand is stored on the conveyor 10 of the predetermined storage and conveyance shelves 11a to 11b. An article in relatively less demand is transferred to the predetermined case storage shelf 12 provided in the upper part of the storage and conveyance shelves 11a to 11b by a stacker crane and stored there.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a case automatic warehouse for sorting and storing packaged goods in case units and for delivering the stored packaged goods, and more particularly to improving efficiency of sorting, storage and shipping. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in the distribution system, the efficiency of storage and sorting has been required in accordance with the increase in the number of products and the frequent delivery of products in the store. A case automatic warehouse is used. As shown in FIG. 6, for example, the case automatic warehouse 1 is connected to a pallet storage warehouse 2 for storing articles in pallet units and a replenishment conveyor 3 and is disassembled and sent in case units in the pallet storage warehouse 2. The multi-tiered high-level shelves 4 arranged in a plurality of rows, and the stacker-cranes 5, the storage conveyors 6, and the delivery conveyors 7 provided between the rows of the multi-tiered high-level shelves 4 for storing and sorting the packed packages. Have. Then, a storage shelf for the packaged goods to which the packaged goods are sent from the pallet storage warehouse 2 in units of cases is determined for each article by inventory management, and when the packaged goods are sent from the pallet storage warehouse 2 in units of cases, the receiving conveyor. It is transported to the entrance of the shelf passage where it is stored at 6, and the stacker crane 5
Is stored in a predetermined shelf of the multi-tiered high-rise shelf 4. Further, the packaged goods to be delivered are conveyed from the corresponding shelf to the position of the delivery conveyor 7 by the stacker crane 5 and then the delivery conveyor 7
It is sent to the shipping area 8 and is delivered.

Further, for example, as shown in the layout diagram of FIG.
Of the pallet goods stored in the pallet storage warehouse 2, the items that are in high demand are disassembled into cases using a depalletizer,
Items in units of spaces are stored in the flow rack 21, items in relatively low demand are stored in the case automatic warehouse, and items stored in the flow rack 21 and the case automatic warehouse are requested. A method of picking up and separating each delivery destination is also adopted.

[0004]

When storing and sorting a large variety of packaged items in the case automatic warehouse 1 as described above, a large number of storage shelves of multi-tiered high-level shelves 4 and a large number of stacker cranes 5 are required. become. In other words, even if a product with a large output (hereinafter referred to as A product) is disassembled into cases in the pallet storage warehouse 2,
A large number of storage shelves are required in order to store all of them once in the storage shelves of the case automatic warehouse 1 and then to leave. For example, 10
In a system that outputs 0 kinds of goods in 1000 cases per unit time, about 5000 storage shelves are required. In addition, if 1000 cases are to be delivered per unit time, 1 case
It needs to be processed in 3.6 seconds per scan. If the time required for loading and unloading with one stacker crane 5 is 60 seconds per case and the operation rate is 85%, 20 stacker cranes 5 are required. For this reason, there is a disadvantage that the installation space and the equipment cost of equipment and the like increase.

Further, since a large number of storage shelves and flow racks are required, as shown in FIG. 6, the input conveyor 6 and the output conveyor 7 are complicatedly interlocked with each other, or as shown in FIG. 22 was required, and the installation and management of the equipment was not easy.

[0006] In addition, the shipping pattern of the shipping pallet when shipping the case-by-case goods is such that the packing pattern is lumped for each type and the unloading order is taken into consideration. It may be loaded in reverse order. When automating this loading method, in order to batch the articles of the same type that have been stored in case of making a lump for each type, the shipping conveyor that sends out the items from each storage rack or flow rack is connected to the shipping site. When the goods are sent to the shipping conveyor, they will be joined intermittently. Also, when loading items in the reverse order of unloading, the articles are delivered individually from each storage rack or flow rack, so when the articles are sent from the delivery conveyor to the shipping conveyor connected to the shipping site, continuous merging is performed. Become. However, when there are a large number of merging conveyors as described above, if the merging method is changed according to the packing style of the shipping pallet, the control is not easy and the control device becomes very complicated, resulting in high price. As it turned out, maintenance was not easy.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above disadvantages, and it is possible to reduce the number of case storage shelves, stacker cranes, and conveyors, and to efficiently carry out a case. The purpose is to obtain a warehouse.

[0008]

A case automatic warehouse according to the present invention is a case automatic warehouse having a multi-stage high-rise shelf, a stacker crane, and a loading / unloading device. It is characterized by the provision of storage / transport shelves having transport conveyors in stages.

It is desirable to arrange a plurality of multi-tiered high-rise shelves having the above-mentioned storage / transport shelves in a plurality of rows, and to arrange a stacker crane between the multi-tiered high-rise shelves.

In addition, a warehousing conveyor is arranged at one end of the above-mentioned multi-tiered high-level shelves and a delivery conveyor is arranged at the other end of the tiered multi-tiered shelves. It is advisable to connect storage / transport shelves with a sorting conveyor that rotates in the vertical direction.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the present invention, a distribution center has a pallet storage warehouse for storing articles in pallet units and an automatic case warehouse for sorting and storing articles in case units. The case automatic warehouse has multi-tiered high-level shelves arranged in multiple rows and a stacker crane disposed between the multi-tiered high-level shelves, and each multi-tiered high-level shelf has a storage conveyor and a delivery on the end side. It is connected to the conveyor. Each multi-tiered high-level shelf is provided with a storage / transportation shelf having transport conveyors in multiple lower layers, and a multi-tiered case storage shelf for storing articles in case units is provided on top of the storage / transportation shelf. There is. A distribution conveyor that rotates in the vertical direction is provided on each of the storage side and the storage side of the storage / transportation shelves.

[0012] When goods that are in high demand are stored,
A multi-tiered high-rise shelf determined according to the type of the article is selected, and the article is sent to the specified storage / transportation shelf of the selected multi-tiered high-rise shelf, and is delivered to the delivery side by the transport conveyor provided on the storage / transportation shelf. store. By repeating this operation one by one, the articles that are in high demand are stored in the case of each product type and stored on the conveyor of the shelf.

Further, when articles of relatively low demand are transported to the case automatic warehouse, they are provided on one storage / transportation shelf having a multi-stage high-rise shelf that is predetermined according to the type of the transportation. After the article is conveyed to a predetermined position by the conveyer conveyor, it is conveyed by the stacker crane to a predetermined case storage rack provided on the upper part of the storage / conveyance rack to be transferred and stored.

When an article with a high demand stored in a storage / transport shelf is to be unloaded, the transportation conveyor carrying the article is driven to send the article to the sorting conveyor to be unloaded. Also,
When shipping relatively low-demand goods stored in the case storage rack, the goods are transferred to the transfer conveyor of the storage / transfer rack by a stacker crane and then delivered.

[0015]

1 is a plan view showing the arrangement of an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the distribution center has a pallet storage warehouse 2 for storing articles in pallet units, a replenishment conveyor 3 and a case automatic warehouse 1 for storing and sorting articles in units of cases. As shown in the plan view of FIG. 2 and the side view of FIG. 3, the case automatic warehouse 1 has multi-tiered high-rise shelves 4a to 4h arranged in a plurality of rows, for example, eight rows, and each multi-tiered high-rise shelves 4a to 4h.
4h, and a stacking conveyor 5 connected to the replenishing conveyor 3 is arranged at one end of each of the multi-level high-level shelves 4a to 4h.
The delivery conveyor 7 connected to the shipping conveyor 9 connected to the shipping area 8 is connected to the other end side of a to 4h.

As shown in the perspective view of FIG. 4, each of the multi-stage high-layer shelves 4a to 4h is provided with storage / transport shelves 11a to 11d having the transport conveyors 10 in a plurality of lower layers, for example, four stages.
Above the storage / transport shelves 11a to 11d is provided a multistage case storage rack 12 for storing articles in case units. Between the storage / transport shelves 11a to 11d and the storage conveyor 6 is provided a distribution conveyor 13 that rotates in the up-down direction with the storage conveyor 6 side as the center of rotation, and the storage conveyor 6 and the storage / transport shelves 11a. 11d are connected by the distribution conveyor 13. In addition, storage / transport shelves 11
A distribution conveyor 14 is provided between the delivery side of a to 11d and the delivery conveyor 7 and rotates in the up-down direction about the delivery conveyor 7 side as a rotation center.
The transport shelves 11a to 11d are connected by a sorting conveyor 14.

Of the storage / transport shelves 11a to 11d, the lower storage / transport shelves 11a to 11c store and deliver the goods in units of cases, and the uppermost storage / transport shelves 11d are the case storage shelves 12. The articles stored in the case are stored in the case, and the articles conveyed by the stacker crane 5 from the case storage rack 12 are output.

With the increasing variety of products, there are various types of products handled by the distribution center configured as described above, including those that are in high demand and those that are in relatively low demand. The 4 types are the products which are usually called A products, which are in high demand and have a large output, and the other products are B products and C products which are in smaller demand than the A products.
The ratios of the A, B, and C products and the shipping amount have a distribution as shown in FIG. 5, and the shipping amount of the A product is about 65%. In this way, A is in high demand and B is in relatively low demand.
The operation of storing the goods and the goods C in the case automatic warehouse 1 and leaving them will be described.

When the articles are stored in the case automatic warehouse 1, the articles stored in the pallet storage warehouse 2 in pallet units are disassembled in case units and then stored in the case automatic warehouse 1 by the replenishment conveyor 3. Be transported. When the article being conveyed by the replenishing conveyor 3 is an A-demanded article, one of the multi-tiered high-level shelves 4a to 4h is selected according to the type of the article. For example, when the A1 type A product is sent, the multi-stage high-rise shelf 4a is selected, and the a1 type A product conveyed by the replenishing conveyor 3 is multi-staged by the receiving conveyor 6 provided on the receiving side of the multi-stage high-rise shelf 4a. It is conveyed to the high-layer shelf 4a side. When the A1 type A product is started to be conveyed by the receiving conveyor 6, the sorting conveyor 13 is rotated to the position of the lowest storage / conveyance shelf 11a of the multi-stage high-rise shelf 4a to store the conveyed A1 type A product. -Send to the transport shelf 11a. Storage
When the A1 type A product is sent to the transport shelf 11a, the transport conveyor 10 is driven to transport the A1 type A product to the delivery side for storage. This processing is sequentially repeated while the A1 type A product is being sent, and the a1 type A product is sent to and stored in the lowermost storage / conveyance shelf 11a of the multi-stage high-rise shelf 4a.
Similarly, for example, A product of b3 type is the case automatic warehouse 1
When the multi-stage high-rise shelves 4b are transferred to the third-stage storage / transport shelves 11c, they are stored. This operation is sequentially repeated each time an item A, which is in high demand, is sent, and is stored in the storage / transport shelves 11a to 11c provided in the lower three stages of the multi-stage high-layer shelves 4a to 4h for each product type. Therefore, for example, when handling 100 kinds of articles and storing 24 kinds of articles that are in high demand, three rows of storage / transport shelves 11a to 11c should be provided on each of the eight rows of multi-tiered high-level shelves 4a to 4h. It is possible to sort and store 24 types of articles that are in high demand.

Further, when B or C goods having a relatively low demand are carried to the case automatic warehouse 1, multi-tiered high-level shelves 4a ...
4h of predetermined multi-tiered high-rise shelves, for example, multi-tiered high-rise shelves 4h are selected, and the articles in case units being conveyed are transferred to the storage conveyor 6
And the sorting conveyor 13 to sort the multi-tiered high-rise shelves 4h
It is sent to the storage / transport shelf 11d on the fourth stage from the bottom. The B or C product sent to the storage / transportation shelf 11d is stored in a predetermined case provided on the storage / transportation shelf 11d by the stacker crane 5.
It is transported to the storage shelf 12 and transferred and stored. This operation is sequentially repeated each time a B or C product having a relatively low demand is conveyed, and sorted and stored in the case storage rack 12 of the multi-stage high-layer shelves 4a to 4h.

A goods stored in the case automatic warehouse 1 as described above, for example, the storage / transportation shelves 11 of the multi-stage high-rise shelves 4b.
When the b3 product type A stored in c is to be unloaded, the sorting conveyor 14 provided on the shipping side of the multi-tiered high-level shelf 4b is rotated to the position of the storage / transport shelf 11c, and then the storage / transport shelf 1 is moved.
1c transport conveyor 10 and distribution conveyor 14 and shipping conveyor 9 are driven to sequentially send A3 products of b3 type stored in storage / transportation shelf 11c to shipping conveyor 9 and are transported to shipping site 8 by shipping conveyor 9. To do. In this way, the A products sorted and stored in the storage / conveyance shelves 11a to 11c can be directly delivered without using the stacker crane 5 and can be delivered efficiently.

When the B or C product sorted and stored in the case storage shelf 12 is to be unloaded, the case storage shelf 12 in which the articles to be unloaded are stored is stored in the fourth stage from the bottom. After positioning the sorting conveyor 14 on the delivery side at the position of the transport shelf 11d, the B or C product taken out from the predetermined case storage rack 12 by the stacker crane 5 is transferred to the storage / transport rack 11d. Then, the transferred B product or C product is sent to the shipping conveyor 9 by the transfer conveyor 10 and the distribution conveyor 14 of the storage / transfer rack 11d. In this way, the stacker-crane 5 provided between the multi-tiered high-layer shelves 4a to 4h.
Since it is necessary to carry only the B and C products, which have relatively low demand, it is possible to carry in and out with a small number of products. For example
If 100 kinds of goods are to be delivered at 1000 cases per hour, 76 kinds of B and C products with relatively low demand are to be delivered at 360 cases per hour. Stacker crane 5 operation tact The time is 10 seconds / case. Here, assuming that the operation rate of the stacker crane 5 is 85%, the number of stacker cranes 5 that can output 360 cases per hour is sufficient if 7 units are provided. Therefore, the number of stacker / cranes 5 can be significantly reduced as compared with the conventional one. Further, since the transfer conveyor 10 provided on the storage / transfer rack 11d can carry out the warehousing and the warehousing, the number of conveyors can be halved as compared with the conventional one.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, each multi-tiered case of an automatic warehouse having multi-tiered high-tier shelves arranged in a plurality of rows and a stacker-crane disposed between the multi-tiered high-tier shelves. Storage with transport conveyors in multiple stages below the high-rise shelf
A transport shelf is provided, and a multi-tiered case storage shelf for storing goods in case units is installed above the storage / transport shelf, and the storage / transport shelf's loading and unloading sides rotate vertically. When an article with a high demand is stored by connecting a sorting conveyor, the article is sent to a predetermined storage / transport shelf of a multi-tiered high-level shelf that is determined according to the type of the article, and the storage / transport shelf is provided. Since the articles are sent to and stored on the delivery side by the conveyer conveyor, articles that are in high demand can be stored without using the stacker crane, and a large number of articles can be stored in a short time.

Further, when an article that is in high demand and stored in the storage / transportation shelf is to be unloaded, it can be unloaded by driving the transportation conveyor carrying the article, so that it can be efficiently unloaded.

When articles of relatively low demand are transported to the case automatic warehouse, they are provided on one storage / transportation shelf having a multi-stage high-rise shelf that is predetermined according to the type of product transported. After the goods are conveyed to the specified position by the conveyor, they are conveyed to the specified case storage rack provided on the upper part of the storage / transfer rack by the stacker crane, transferred, stored and stored. When shipping items with relatively low demand stored on storage shelves, the stackers and cranes are used to transfer the articles to the conveyors of the storage / transport shelves for delivery, so It is possible to carry out the warehousing and the warehousing by the transfer conveyor provided in the, and it is possible to reduce the number of conveyors. Therefore, it is possible to easily perform control when the articles discharged from the multi-tiered high-level shelves merge, simplify the equipment, and reduce the installation area.

Further, since the stacker / crane is used only for loading and unloading the articles which are stored in the case storage shelves and have relatively low demand, the number of stacker / cranes can be significantly reduced. The equipment cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an arrangement of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a case automatic warehouse.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the case automatic warehouse.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a multi-tiered high-rise shelf.

FIG. 5 is a distribution chart showing the quantity of goods shipped by product type.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing another conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Case Automatic Warehouse 2 Pallet Storage Warehouse 3 Replenishing Conveyor 4 Multi-Stage High-Rise Shelf 5 Stacker Crane 6 Incoming Conveyor 7 Outgoing Conveyor 8 Shipping Site 9 Shipping Conveyor 10 Transport Conveyor 11 Storage / Transport Shelf 12 Case Storage Shelf 13 Sorting Conveyor 14 Sorting Conveyor

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Shinichiro Eto 1-2-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Inside Nihon Kokan Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An automatic warehouse having a multi-stage high-rise shelf, a stacker crane, and a loading / unloading device, wherein a storage / transport shelf having a transport conveyor is provided in a plurality of lower layers of the multi-stage high-rise shelf. Characteristic case automatic warehouse. 2. A case automatic warehouse according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of high-rise shelves having the storage / transport shelves are arranged in a plurality of rows, and a stacker crane is arranged between the respective high-rise shelves. 3. An warehousing conveyor is arranged at one end of the multi-tiered high-level shelves in the plurality of rows, and a delivery conveyor is disposed at the other end of the multi-tiered high-level shelves. 3. The case automatic warehouse according to claim 2, wherein the storage / transport shelves are connected by a sorting conveyor that rotates in the vertical direction.